Sydney is doing better!

Sydney is now feeling much better- it was about a week of not feeling well but now she is more of her happy self. And she is sleeping better too! Hooray! She still wakes up once around midnight most nights but she is waking up around 6:00 am instead of 5am for the day so that is an improvement! I am starting to get worried/apprehensive/nervous about this baby coming soon. So I have made the goal to do one thing everyday that will help me prepare for either the labor or getting things ready for when they baby is home with us. I sorted through Sydney's old clothes on Saturday and pulled out anything that would work for a boy- and besides a few burp cloths/cloth diapers we have a few white or mostly white onsies and some white socks. I didn't realize how much stuff really was gender specific. So now I have a starting point and am going to work on getting a few things for each age range and at least a box of diapers before this baby comes.

Sydney now likes to sit and look at books on her own!! It is adorable! She loves to read books and play outside. It is starting to really heat up here so we will have to start going to the swimming pool in our neighborhood. And we have started potty training Sydney. We got her a special stool and smaller seat that goes on the toilet and she loves it.

Her favorite food right now is probably popsicles- and that would be anything that is frozen- yogurt, fruit, and actual popsicles. She calls them popcorn. She will sit on the rug in the kitchen and wait for me to get her one. For some reason she loves to sit on that rug and if it has any thing on it that shouldn't be there she will sit there and pick it off- so I try and shake it out regularly. And she loves to look at pictures of people, especially the family calender we got for Christmas! She loves to look at it and name or have us name everyone who is on each page.


The past few months have been busy. For Christmas Brent was able to get 2 weeks off from work so we went to Sparks Nevada to spend the holidays with family. In March we flew to Utah for Grandpa Young's funeral (my mom's dad), had a little over a week at home in Texas and then flew back to Utah for my sister Jill's wedding and stayed a few extra days for our last vacation before our little boy joins us in June (he still doesn't have a name). Then we got back and Sydney got sick. So after last week things are finally settling back to normal. Sydney even liked nursery this past week. She normally would cling to us like glue and not want to go, and sometimes would cry even with us in nursery with her. Hopefully next Sunday will be even better and I might be able to sneak out and listen to some of the lessons instead of getting to play in nursery. Brent has been filling in for either the Primary pianist or the chorister lately so he hasn't made it to class either, but he enjoys being in Primary so he doesn't mind.

Here are a few pictures that we have taken recently:

Sydney loved these little chairs at her Great-Grandma & Grandpa Forbushes house!

Brent and his Grandma Forbush mending his torn jeans- with duct tape! He tore his only pair of jeans while in Utah and mended them just in case he had to wear them- the few days we had left he wore shorts, fortunately it wasn't too cold.

Brent, his Grandpa Forbush and Sydney.

Eastering with some of the Young clan. Our family tradition is to go out in the middle of nowhere (in former years we went to the West side of Utah lake, but it is now private property and becoming very developed) and celebrate the Saturday before Easter Sunday. We circle the wagons, just our chairs really, and enjoy lunch, a lot of junk food, Grandma's famous Peanut Butter Easter Eggs (and marshmallow eggs for those who like them). We hide Easter Eggs among the sage brush that have been filled with treats and money, and let the little kids have an Easter Egg hunt. And we roll colored eggs down a very rocky hill and see whose can make it the farthest without breaking, and then some of the kids throw the eggs at each other- it gets a little ugly sometimes. Those who are interested can also ride four-wheelers and have a little target practice, not at the same time though.

Some of the group going for a hike up a rather steep hill. Even Sydney wanted to do it- she made it pretty far and then Brent carried her on his shoulders.

Sydney rolling an egg down the hill.
The Easter Egg Hunt! Sydney would pick up an egg and shake it and if it didn't make a noise she would put it back. Brent had to open a few to show her that even if it didn't make a noise it still had something yummy in it.

Enjoying some chocolate while opening the eggs!
Erika (my twin) & I with Sydney & Katie (Erika's youngest)

"Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters"
The Happy Couple!!

Jill & Jay with Kylee & Haley holding up Jill's train so it didn't drag along the ground.
The Grandkids minus Megan, Katie & Lauren (wrapped up somewhere since it was a bit cold).

Some older pictures

Just Sydney being cute. Her hair now stays up in 2 pig tails! (I cut her bangs around Valentine's Day.)

A few pictures from Grandpa Young's funeral.

Sydney loves babies! She has two dolls that are her babies and she was holding them, reading them stories, shushing them and I think even singing to them! This was just a phase though- she previously was in a phase where she would twirl one of them around by her hair and the other she didn't care for as much. Now she has to sleep with them and for at least one of them had to come with us anytime we went for a walk or in the car!

Having fun with a big box! This entertained her for days! She colored it and kept treasures in it (like her copy of The Book of Mormon, bubbles, crayons, and anything she wanted to keep close)!

Posing for the camera!


The Forbush Clan

Sydney playing with her cousin Sierra.

Sydney opening her Christmas Eve present (PJ's- a Forbush family tradition).

She was so excited!

Sydney enjoying popcorn and a a rootbeer freeze with her dad!

Finally an update!

Sydney has been sick the past week and it has been rough on all of us I think. She had a really high fever on Sunday and we took her to the doctor on Monday and they did a few tests but everything came back normal so they didn't know what was wrong with her either and just said to keep her comfortable with Tylenol or Motrin to manage her fever. She no longer has a fever but is very irritable still. We changed her bed into a toddler bed and she was okay with it but then if she woke up in the middle of the night she couldn't get back to sleep, so today it got changed back into a crib. So we shall see how today and the next few days go.

Halloween

Sydney's cute ladybug costume! She had fun walking around the neighborhood with some friends. She didn't really get the whole trick-or-treating thing and was too shy to walk up to most of the houses. She would get halfway to the door and freeze. If no one had answered the door yet she would usually go all the way to the porch, but there were too many strangers for her to handle. We just went around our block and then headed to the church building for a trunk-or-treat.

Uh-Oh

Sydney somehow got a mini bag of M&M's on the way to the church and sucked all the chocolate out of the bag. By the time we got to the church and Brent tried to safely get her out of the car without getting smeared with chocolate she had eaten all of the M&M's and had even put the bag in her mouth! We quickly got the bag out and got her cleaned off. And miraculously she only had a few dots of chocolate on her dress which all came out in the wash! Hooray!

Just a family picture at the truck-or-treat. Brent was a BYU fan, Sydney a ladybug and I was a coygirl- unfortunately my belt buckel didn't make it into the picture!

"Family Day at the Park"

The city had a "Family Day at the Park" and brought hula hoops and jump ropes, as well as a few other things for the kids to play with. It was fun. Sydney was watching the other kids hula hoop and wanted to try.

Sydney loves to read books before bedtime and nap time. I usually pick out a few and let her choose which one she wants to read. Sometimes she really has a hard time deciding and looks at each book and pauses at each one, but those days are rare lately. Her favorite book right now is The Book of Mormon Stories. We are on our second time through it in less than 2 weeks and she is just starting to let me read other books to her. I still let her pick every time, but she doesn't labor over the decision at all! She takes on look at the other book and either grabs and and drops it to the floor or pushes it away from her. She then grabs the one she really wants to read (The Book of Mormon Stories), gets into position in the chair and helps me open it. And if I am reading too slow she helps me turn the pages. If I try to read a different book to her she helps turn the pages as fast as she can or just forces it closed. At least she likes a good one! I checked out The New Testament Stories from our ward library to see if she would like that one as well. That's our funny girl!!

Sydney moved my step stool, which is one of her favorite places to sit, from the kitchen to the side of the couch and climbed right up. I don't know why she does things sometimes!

While Brent was out home teaching this afternoon, Sydney and I watched/listened to a recording of Music & The Spoken Word. I had watched it while Sydney was napping and thought she might enjoy it because is had children singing. And sure enough she loved it! With her sippy cup and animal crackers she climbed right into her chair and soaked it all in. Once it got to the part where the children sang she was done, but it was nice while it lasted!

Hats

Sydney loves to put things on her head. Most days she sticks to her actual hat, an old ice cream bucket, or her dad's bike helmet, but today it was her lunch bowl. Fortunately she dumped the food out first!

Our Little Climber!!

Sydney has been getting better at climbing lately. She has been climbing onto the couch for a few weeks and she likes to climb out of our neighborhood pool the hard way, up the side, instead of walking up the sloped part. This past Wednesday she made her most daring move of all! In a matter of minutes she figured out how to open the drawers under the TV, empty the middle row of CDs and use the drawer as a step! The next day she decided it would be fun to use an old ice cream bucket as a step to reach and see higher in the kitchen. She puts it upside down next to the cupboards and pulls herself on top of the bucket, then she decided to use boxes and open the doors to the cupboards and peer over the top of the door. Cute, but scary at the same time!

Sorry for the blurry picture but I just couldn't leave it out.

As soon as she saw that I had the camera she started to climb down. It makes taking pictures very hard when she is fascinated with the camera!

Here is a cute video of her getting down- she is so smart!